Toddler pillow

I threw together a little quickie project for E while she was in her bath tonight.

E loves having pillows for her "big girl bed," so we picked up this $2 pillow from Ikea a couple months back. It's the perfect size for her toddler bed. At the time, I didn't realize it was going to become her actual pillow that she uses every night. She also likes to drag it all over the house. I decided to make a little pillow case for it so it would be easier to keep clean. Also, being a cheap $2 Ikea pillow, some of the red & black dyes have bled, so it's not looking so pretty anymore.



I decided to do an overlapping envelope-style for the back, just to keep the pillow from falling out too easily.


In case you're curious, a little backstory on the fabric I used:
Those of you with kids will probably immediately recognize the print as the children from Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Apparently, you can buy Eric Carle fabric. E spotted a fat quarter with the children on it when we were in a fabric store last month and went crazy for it. After she dragged it all over the store and even put it in her mouth, I felt compelled to buy it. Hrmph. But she really seemed to love it and has been playing with it, using it as a doll blanket, among other things, and she refers to it as "my fabric."

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with her fabric until last week, when she spotted another Eric Carle print, this time from The Very Hungry Caterpiller (she refers to it as "the balls). I figured what the heck and bought it too.

It actually me longer to figure out the math on how I needed to cut the pieces than it did to sew the pillowcase. But for anyone interested in making one for this specific pillow, here's what I did:
I cut one 18"x12" piece for the front of the pillow.

For the back, I wanted to cut two 11"x12" pieces, but I ran into a minor problem. Fat quarters are generally around 18"x22" and once you wash them (I almost always pre-wash), you lose a bit to shrinkage. So I fudged a bit and ended up with two 10 1/2"x12" pieces instead.(*see note below)

Take one of the back pieces and on the 12" edge, turn it about 1/2 inch and press, then turn another 1/2 inch and press again. I used to be lazy and skip using an iron (I'd just finger-press), but I got tired of wonky seams and edges so I'm now an ironing-convert. Sew down the turned edge (I used a 3/8" seam because that's what I get when I line the edge of the fabric up with my presser foot). Repeat for the other back piece.

Then I laid the large front panel on my table right-side up and lined up the two back pieces on top of it, right-sides down, so that the outer edges lined up and they overlapped in the middle. Pin all around. I also put a couple pins in the middle of the overlap, just to keep it all straight.

Sew around the entire edge (again, I used a 3/8" seam, but 1/4" would be fine too). Clip the corners and turn out. I reinforced my seams with an overcast stitch, but you don't necessarily have to do that.

*Honestly, 10 1/2 inches was really cutting it close, and if you have a particularly fluffy pillow, you may end up with some gapping at the overlap. If I make another, I'll probably cut 12"x12" pieces, just to be safe. Unfortunately, that rules out using fat quarters unless you have an extra. Or alternatively, when you press down the edges, you could make the turns much smaller, like 1/4" or even 1/8".

A new pledge (or subtitled: yes, I really do need an intervention)

I am going on the fabric wagon. For real.

Here's my new pledge. I am not buying a single scrap of fabric until I get rid of some of what I have. I have easily 2o sewing projects in my queue right now (don't even get me started on the dozens of unfinished/unstarted knitting & crochet projects), mostly for other people, and until I knock out a significant number of them, I am not buying another bit of fabric. Seriously. I'm counting on you people to hold me accountable.

Just to give you a taste of how crazy things have gotten, here are some pics of recent fabric acquisitions. Never mind that my craft room is already packed to the gills with bins and shelves and bags of fabric.

Top two are Japanese prints that I got for reasonably cheap from a website that was going out of business. The bottom two are Michael Miller prints that I got on sale about 3 weeks ago. I hadn't intended on getting very much until E looked at them and demanded that I make her a new nap mat. So I guess I'm making her a new nap mat for this fall. Whatevs.


Robot fabric!! Need I say more?

Random cute fabric. Had to take advantage of being in Iowa last week to pick up some licensed fabric from the local Jo-Ann. And who doesn't love owls? And sushi?


And here's a big bunch of fat quarters, most of which I got on sale yesterday. I'm planning on churning out a ton of crayon rolls and maybe some drawing cases or bags too. In fact, I'm thinking I may try and sell a bunch to fund my habit. I'm happy to take special requests. ;)


Maybe when I'm feeling less embarrassed, I'll post some more of my gigantor stash. Or better yet, maybe I'll be able to post it as FOs!

I'm really in trouble now...

I think I've been bitten by the quilting bug. I don't quite know how it happened. I always swore that I had no interest in quilting, that the idea of cutting and sewing all those small pieces would surely drive me insane. And yet...

OK, so I did make a little quilt for E. That was sort of the start of it. I never knew that you could buy pre-cut squares of fabric (called charm packs)! So when I came across them at this amazing fabric store a few months ago, I thought, how hard could it be? Half the work is cutting, and that's been eliminated! That was the the beginning of the end. I actually finished the crib-size quilt in (for me) a reasonably quick mannger, even though the actual machine quilting was such a pain that I swore I'd never make another one.


Then a few weeks ago, I came across a "layer cake," which is big 10" squares, in this adorable set of Christmas prints and at almost half off! How could I resist? I thought, "This would make a wonderful Christmas gift for a family member." I resolved to pay someone else to do the quilting with a long-arm machine, since that was the part I most disliked. And that's where I got totally sucked in.

I started thinking to myself, well, just sewing these giant squares together is sort of boring. Maybe I should try and do a slightly more complicated pattern. So I started looking online at patterns and tutorials. And then I wandered into another cool local fabric shop with the idea that I'd at least pick up coordinating fabric for the backing and binding, and pretty much all was lost. I came out of there with a pattern, a ridiculous number of fat quarters (I'll save my stash issues for another post), a million ideas for new projects, and neither backing nor binding fabric. Eep.

So now I'm waffling on whether to actually use the pattern I bought or to save it for some future new quilt (because I'm realizing there WILL be more quilts in my future). And I've realized from the yardage requirements on the pattern I bought that I don't have quite enough to make as a big a quilt as I had originally intended, so I've started debating whether I should try and find another layer cake, or maybe get some yardage and do more borders...and it just gets crazier and crazier. My initial savings of $20 is probably going to end up costing me hundreds.

Although I'm happy to say, at least I'm taking others down with me; I think I've managed to suck a few friends into my new quilting mania. Haha!

Because I'm not busy enough

I decided to make E a dress for 4th of July. I actually bought the fabric for this over a month ago, but of course, being the procrastinator that I am, I didn't start sewing until 2 days before we had to leave town. Needless to say, I was up very very late.

My original idea was to do a halter-style dress, with 3 gathered tiers, so it would be nice and twirly. I bought 3 different patriotic-themed prints of fabric and started cutting. Well, no matter how I arranged them, the 3rd fabric (it had stripes and stars) just never seemed to fit in quite right. So at the last minute, I scrapped the bottom tier and replaced it with a thick band. I also opted to make my own bias tape for the top and ties so that I wouldn't have to fuss with turning and hemming the armholes. In fact, now that I think about it, I pretty much did zero hemming on this project! Score!

I drafted the pattern myself by more or less tracing part of an existing top that I liked the shape of for the bodice. Then I measured the width of the bodice (12" each side) and multiplied by 1.5 for the skirt. Sewed that into a tube, gathered it and attached it to the bodice. For the band of trim at the bottom, I cut a piece the same width as the skirt, sewed it into a tube, then folded the whole thing lengthwise so that there were no raw edges sewing. It's a method I picked up from making the Portabello Pixie peasant dress, and it's my new favorite way to add a finished touch to the bottom of a dress (as you can also see from the last two shirred dresses I made).


Because I love shirring and hate making casing for elastic, I decided to continue the binding along the back and shir that for a snug fit.



I'm super happy with how this top turned out. It fits her exactly. In fact, if it were even an inch narrower, I'm not sure she'd be able to get it on. It's a good thing that the 4th is next week! I still sort of wish it were longer so it could be a dress, but otherwise, I can't complain. I'll probably make more of these for E to wear the rest of the summer since it's been so unbelievably HOT. Next time I'll attempt to make a tutorial.

And here's the matching reversible hat. It's from an Ottobre pattern, but minus the rickrack and interfacing because I was too lazy. I've never sewn a hat before, and it was a bit trickier than I thought it'd be. I had some trouble with the two prints lining up quite right, but I think that's because I had to add the seam allowance myself when I cut the fabric, and it wasn't exactly scientific. Like I said, I was in a bit of a time crunch. It's not as perfect as I'd like (nothing ever is), but I'm happy enough with it. I think the crown part is too deep and pointy, but again, I chalk that up to hasty sewing. I'll probably try another soon.

Hats, shapes, another crayon roll

I've been pretty caught up in my new cooking blog, so it's been a while since I've made anything non food-related. A couple weeks ago, I went to a knitting night with some mom friends though, and I got back into doing a bit of crochet. Even though I prefer the look of knitting, crochet is what I turn to when I want to make something quickly.

I had been playing around for some time with a pattern for a hat that uses a criss-cross sort of look. It's not quite perfected yet, but I think I'm getting close. The color of the pink cotton yarn I was using reminded me of watermelon, which is E's latest obsession, so I decided to use that as inspiration to make her a watermelon hat. She calls it "water-lemon" which always cracks me up.

I'm not entirely happy with how the brim turned out. I think I increased too much, which is why it looks ruffle-y instead of flat. I also used a different kind of cotton yarn for the brim, which contributed to the floppiness.

I also finally finished up some stuff commissioned by a mom-friend. Another crayon roll, made from more of the dinosaur fabric (I'm so glad I bought extra - I love that fabric!), and some crochet shapes.

She had originally asked me for a sun, moon, and star, but I had a hell of a time with the moon. I usually come up with my own patterns, but I was kind of at a loss for where to start. Even after Googling extensively for patterns, I only found one pattern that was remotely close to what I had in mind and it still needs quite a bit of adjustment. I'm going to make it my vacation project next week.

In the meantime, here are the sun and a star. I think they turned out pretty cute. E loved them too and was sad when I told them they weren't for her, so I'll probably be making her a set now too.

I stuffed these with Eco-craft instead of my usual poly-fil. If you're not familiar, it's this environmentally friendly, man-made corn-based fiber. Interesting stuff. It definitely is not as fluffy as poly-fil, but it is softer to the touch. I feel like the finished products were a little more dense than usual. I have a couple bags that I'm going to try out, but so far, I'm not quite sold. I'm going to wait and see how it performs for stuffing some plush animals before I make a final decision.

Mmmm...more food

I'm on a big cooking and baking streak lately. One of my favorite recipe blogs is 101 Cookbooks, which has a lot of great vegetarian fare and healthy baking ideas. Last night, I made her Summer Squash Gratin using some zucchini and yellow squash from the farmers market. It turned out sooooo good! Savory, crunchy, herb-y deliciousness! Definitely a great way to use up zucchini from the garden...if I had a garden.

My notes:
I don't own a mandoline slicer, so it was a wee bit labor intensive to slice the potatoes paper-thin, but definitely worth it - just make sure you have a very sharp knife. I also didn't have fresh bread crumbs so I substituted panko, which I think worked out perfectly. I probably could have browned my butter more, but I think the difference would have been negligible since most of the crumbs end up browned in the oven anyway.

I loved the lemon zest in this recipe. It really added a nice bright flavor to the dish and I think I'll probably add more next time, maybe even mix it in with the squash and potato mixture so it's more evenly distributed. I also think reserving some of the pesto to drizzle on top was a waste. I may just use less olive oil next time for a smaller yield and mix everything in.

Cake-tastrophe

I've been busy with family and travel lately, so no new crafty stuff to post as of yet. I did get a chance to bake yesterday though, which has become a rare treat ever since I started dieting last month. I've had this chocolate matcha (green tea) cake bookmarked for a while now, and used a Knitting Night as an excuse to finally make it.

It was pretty easy to whip up, although the batter did look very very curdled after I added the milk (probably because I didn't quite let it get up to room temp). But once I added all the flour and such, it was fine. I love the deep green color of the matcha batter.


The whole thing baked up like a dream, including the little heart cupcakes I made with the leftover batter,

but I had a horrific time trying to get it unmolded from my pan. I used to never ever have problems with this pan but I seem to have lost my magic touch, even after greasing the bejeezus out of it. This was the end result :(


With a little careful surgery, I managed to do get most of the rest out of the pan and salvage a little of my pride, but I was still pretty bummed. It never fails that this always happens when I'm baking for other people, dammit.


In any case, the cake itself was quite delicious. I did not get quite the deep dark chocolate color that Bakerella did, but then I used natural cocoa powder, not dutched. I suspect that Dutch-processed cocoa may have yielded a different result. Here's a shot of the cake after sliced.